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Are Teessiders getting enough from Sir Stuart Bell?

SIR Stuart Bell, the Middlesbrough MP who has not held a constituency surgery for 14 years, today faces fresh questions over his dedication to voters after a Gazette investigation.

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by Teesside Live

11:00, 6 Sep 2011Updated21:42, 13 May 2013

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SIR Stuart Bell, the Middlesbrough MP who has not held a constituency surgery for 14 years, today faces fresh questions over his dedication to voters after a Gazette investigation.

Unlike most MPs, Sir Stuart does not have an office open in the town, and does not hold regular meetings with residents.

He says he meets with members of the public by appointment instead, and says people can reach him at any time by telephone.

To test the claim, the Gazette has been making daily calls to Sir Stuart’s Westminster office and Middlesbrough home over the course of several months.

Despite making a total of 100 calls, no one ever answered.

Sir Stuart is paid an annual salary of £65,738 to serve as the town’s MP, and claimed £82,896 for staffing costs last year. Wife Lady Margaret was paid more than £35,000 to work as his office manager.

But no-one appears to be available to answer the phone.

Sir Stuart, 73, has been the town’s MP since 1983, and has been re-elected six times. He says he stopped holding surgeries after he was physically threatened by a constituent in 1997.

Members of the public tell us that he often does not reply to emails, letters or calls.

The Gazette made a total of 100 calls to Sir Stuart’s two published telephone numbers during weekday office hours between May and July, when Parliament broke up for the summer.

We used a variety of different Middlesbrough landline numbers and mobile phones - to conceal the fact that the calls were coming from this newspaper - and a log was kept of exactly when each call was made.

No one ever answered the phone. All calls rang out to an answering machine.

Yesterday afternoon the Gazette made calls to the published telephone numbers for Tom Blenkinsop, Alex Cunningham, James Wharton and Ian Swales - the four other Teesside MPs - and each was answered by a member of staff at the first attempt.

The four also run open offices in their constituencies which offer help and advice to residents.

Sir Stuart regularly faces criticism from residents who have tried, but failed, to get his help.

Today we speak to one who organised a pre-General Election hustings event last year in which all the candidates - except for Sir Stuart - participated.

Environmental campaigner Robert Tucker organised the session. The Middlesbrough Friends of the Earth coordinator said he made several attempts to contact Sir Stuart before he finally got an answer. The Labour MP declined the invitation.

“I tried to get in touch with Stuart Bell two weeks before the event,” said Mr Tucker. “I emailed, phoned, and popped round to his house and left messages through the letter box.”

Sir Stuart eventually replied by email three days before the April 29 hustings, saying he could not attend as he had important business in his role as a church commissioner. Mr Tucker said it was too late by then to reorganise the event for a different date.

“Had we known earlier that Sir Stuart could not make that date, we would have changed it to fit around him,” he said. “There was no communication.

“I think it’s fair to say we found that extremely surprising.”

The event went ahead anyway at St Barnabas Church in Middlesbrough. Sir Stuart’s place on the panel was taken by local Labour councillor Barry Coppinger.

We have also spoken to another two Teessiders who had trouble getting Sir Stuart’s help. Their stories will appear in tomorrow’s Gazette.

Sir Stuart served as the Second Church Estates Commissioner for 13 years until the Labour Party’s defeat last year. The Gazette contacted the Church of England to ask about appointments on that day, but its press office referred us back to the MP.

We have also looked at Sir Stuart’s record in Parliament to see how his performance compares to other MPs.

He has in the past played an active role in bodies responsible for overseeing the workings of Westminster and the Church of England, and he was knighted in 2004 for services to Parliament.

But his duties at Westminster have been scaled down significantly recently.

He served on the Commons Commission - the unit in charge of administrative duties for Parliament - for 10 years until November last year.

Between June and November 22 last year, he answered 90 written questions from MPs on a range of day-to-day matters covering everything from members’ salaries and pensions, to the price of a pint of Guinness in the House of Commons bar.

Since leaving the commission, he has had a role on the Ecclesiastical Committee, although that is not considered to be a committee of Parliament. All the other Teesside MPs are members of committees - with some on as many as three.

Sir Stuart was the only Teesside MP to refuse to take part in the Gazette’s weekly Question Time column, which offers readers the chance to quiz elected members.

He got in touch by email several weeks after we first wrote to ask him to take part, saying: “Many thanks for your interest in our work, but your scheme is not one which commends itself to me.”

What he said in the Commons

GOVERNMENT records show that Sir Stuart has spoken out for his constituency only three times in Parliament since last year’s General Election.

Hansard, the official record of speeches, is listed online, and while other Teesside MPs have spoken up on local issues scores of times, Sir Stuart has remained largely silent.

He only appears to have referred to local issues in three speeches.

Labour colleagues Tom Blenkinsop and Alex Cunningham, as well as Liberal Democrat Ian Swales and Conservative James Wharton, regularly raise issues from constituents on topics as wide-ranging as the public sector cuts, investment in local business, and issues facing the NHS.

Sir Stuart’s first contribution came in a debate on the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review on October 20 last year.

He said: “The House will welcome the facts that the science budget is safeguarded, that the adult apprenticeship scheme will be advanced, and that £500 million will go into the Tyne and Wear metro and the Tees Valley bus network.”

He then spoke on the public sector cuts to refer to the impact they will have across the country.

On March 23, he welcomed the decision to reopen the Redcar steel plant, and the Government’s announcement of an enterprise zone for Teesside. He mentioned that unemployment in Middlesbrough is “disgracefully high”, but adds: “Despite the cutbacks and the impact on local councils, the future is bright for Teesside.”

Middlesbrough has often been highlighted as the town in the country that will suffer most from the ongoing cuts, due to the local economy’s heavy reliance on the public sector.

By comparison, Mr Blenkinsop has spoken about his constituency, the Teesside region, or the North-east a total of 71 times, while Ian Swales has spoken on local issues 56 times, Alex Cunningham 32, and James Wharton 20.

Sir Stuart refers to the town on his website, but the entry does not appear to have been updated. He writes: “Unemployment remains low, aspiration among young people is higher. All these add up to a town moving forward, advancing into the 21st century.”

In fact, Middlesbrough has the third highest rate of unemployment in the country, with around 11.5 Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants chasing every job.

What Teesside MPs have said

THE website www.theyworkforyou.com
gives voters the chance to keep track of their MPs’ work in the Houses of Parliament by listing statistics on the number votes participated in, and the number of speeches made.

MPs often complain that the raw figures do not accurately represent the work they do, as they fail to take into account crucial duties such as meetings with constituents and local groups.

Parliament-watchers have also noticed a rise in the number of times MPs speak, with some accused of taking to their feet in the chamber more often in an attempt to boost their statistics.

The website advises visitors: “We realise that data such as the number of debates spoken in means little in terms of an MP's actual performance.

“MPs do lots of useful things which we don't count yet, and some which we never could. Even when we do, a count doesn't measure the quality of an MP’s contribution.

“When you're judging your MP, read some of their speeches, check out their website, even go to a local meeting and ask them a question.

“Use TheyWorkForYou as a gateway, rather than a simple place to find a number measuring competence.”

The table below collates figures for votes participated in, and the number of speeches made, and ranks individual MPs according to the site’s “average” performance guide.

The table lists our MPs in alphabetical order.

What Labour leaders (didn’t) have to say...

THE GAZETTE wrote to the Labour Party, the leader Ed Miliband, and chief whip Rosie Winterton to ask them the following question -

Is the Labour Party satisfied the people of Middlesbrough are getting the service they deserve from their MP?

The party press office declined to comment, and said it was down to Sir Stuart himself to respond to our story.

They also said no decision has been made on whether he will be selected to stand as the party’s candidate at the next election.

Miss Winterton’s office wrote back to say that it would be up to the Labour press office to comment.

Mr Miliband’s office has yet to reply to our email.

The Gazette also wrote to Sir Stuart several times.

More than a week has passed since we offered the Middlesbrough MP the chance to provide his side of the story, but he has not responded.